Posted on 05/17/2009 12:42:35 AM PDT by Schnucki
This is a very clever move by President Barack Obama. He's chosen Governor Jon Huntsman of Utah as his ambassador to China.
A Republican, former ambassador to Singapore and fluent Mandarin speaker, Huntsman has recently staked out centrist stances on gay rights, climate change and stimulus spending. He'd made clear his contempt for the Republican congressional leadership, saying: "I have not met them. I don't listen or read whatever it is they say because it is inconsequential - completely."
That made him the best-placed moderate Republican to challenge for the 2012 presidential nomination. By any analysis, at this stage a 2012 Republican victory looks like an uphill struggle. Mitt Romney - a former moderate who's now positioned himself firmly on the Right - is probably the front runner with governors Mark Sanford of South Carolina and Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota also likely to run.
Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana appears to be biding his time until 2016 while the soap opera storyline of Sarah Palin;s family and her virtual estrangement from the national GOP make her look a long shot.
Huntsman probably calculated that he would not win in 2012 even if he did manage to secure the nomination. Much better, he would have reasoned, to wait out 2012, gain some major foreign policy experience while not being linked to Obama's domestic policies and have a chance in 2016.
Like the Conservative party in Britain after 1997, it looks to be a long road back for Republicans so taking a time out is likely to be a shrewd decision for someone like Huntsman.
What does Obama gain? It's a concrete example of bipartisanship, he peels off a Republican moderate and therefore shifts the party's centre of gravity further to the Right - which is where Democrats want it),
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.telegraph.co.uk ...
LOL. It didn't exactly help him. Being VP under Reagan for eight years, on the other hand, was all he needed. And all he had, as it turned out. In 1992 Clinton scorned Bush's supposed "expertise" with the Chinese by deriding him for "kowtowing to the butchers of Beijing."
In any case it is academic re: Huntsman. Nobody knows him and nobody cares.
My bet is either Gingrich/Palin or Gingrich/Perry.
Selling the “outside” Washington set vs. big establishment Obama and the Dems - “It’s time for real change.” Those tickets could be marketed.
Notice how the GOP is using “unviable” people like Cheney and Gingrich to carry water right now. Their rank and file are nondescript and too far inside the sphere of decision and policy making with regard to the country’s current problems.
I played Golf with him in Singapore!!
“There are many stronger candidate alternatives.”
###
Name them.
And the specific reasons why they are “stronger candidate alternatives”.
That Camp was Camp Buehring ..she even took Target Practice in other Photos....
She is the Commander of the national Guard...
The Alaskans were security at all the Gates in Northern Kuwait Camp Virginia Camp Buehring and Camp navistar IRAQ Checkpoint camp (since Closed) making way for Khabari crossing!!
These Guys Complained about the Heat ALL the Time it was hilarious they had a stchtick going really funny!
-—I dont agree with the nastiness around Palin.
However, I dont want her anywhere near the nomination in 2012 or 2016 or ever. She is not a strong conservative policy wonk. There are many stronger candidate alternatives.-—
Bobby Jindal, is that you? (heh)
I hate to break it to the UK press, who to their credit has been much better at covering Hussein’s foibles than the lapdog U.S. media, but Huntsman was NOT a top Republican candidate for 2012.
Not in the least.
Hahahahaha. No, I a not Bobby Jindal. :-)
He might run. I don’t know.
Bobby is a brilliant guy and a true conservative. But, I don’t think he has the charisma to inspire a nation and win the General. I think it is hard.
Amen! Although AFAIK, Sanford has nothing about running.
Gov. Mark Sanford Ping! |
You can’t co-op someone who doesn’t want to be co-oped.
It’s between Palin and Sanford. They’ll try anything to make us think otherwise. Huntsman is a joke, so is Pawlenty.
While Romney has little chance of actually winning, his devotees will make sure the primary race is as bloody and nasty as it can be.
Brilliant and Conservative...Agreed. I lived in LA back in the late 90s and even then he was known as a really bright guy.
You never know. If he does some demonstrably, remarkably good things in LA and matures, he has potential. The republicans do need new faces.
Last week someone pinged me with Cheney/Palin 2012 and he really thought Cheney was hurting Obama, said "finally someone has the guts to bring Obama down". All I can say is desperate and delusional. I told him to watch Obama’s polls on national security the next week or so go up.(Cheney is a sideshow and is more problem than solution)
Palin is supposed to get the pro-lifers/social conservatives/single Mom's to vote R, but Cheney is pro-homo rights which may be his ultimate goal in Iraq invasion (just joking!).
Anyone I missed offending ??
Have seen various pics with Gov. Palin and the AK Nat Guard,
not just being Commander of the National Guard but
she takes such pride in them
Executive #1 -- Unwed teen-age daughter had baby (no abortion)
Executive #2 -- Marxist, alcoholic Father who was married to at least four women at the same time. Married to at least one other woman at the same time he was married to Ex. #2's mother.
-- Hard left, ""free-spirit" mother with nude photographs on the internet that were taken in a bi-sexual communists digs.
-- Illegal alien aunt fighting deportation.
-- Brother living in hut on less than $1.00 per month with no help from Ex. #2.
-- Marxist brother and uncle waging a guerilla war to place Marxit Odinga in power in Kenya.
Yeah, Sarah Palin's family is a real soap opera.
I agree about the expansion of government, but 9-11 changed everything for me. If you are dead, you don’t care how the big government is.
Choose one of the following:
a) I'm sorry it brings up painful memories for you, Mr. Quayle.
b) How's that Astroturf working out for you, Mr. Axelrod?
Cheers!
True, but I would rather be safe and free...from terrorists and from our own government.
Safety and freedom are not mutually exclusive.
#99
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